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OTTAWA — As the western world gangs up on Russia ahead of the Sochi Olympics to draw attention to new anti-gay laws Canada’s foreign minister has publicly decried as “hateful,” those inclined to flee the increasingly repressive regime may be looking here for safe refuge.

While too soon to say whether a crackdown on homosexuals in Russia will result in a spike in refugee claims from that country, at least one Vancouver lawyer who deals exclusively with gay and lesbian asylum claimants is beginning to notice a difference.

Rob Hughes handles a few dozen lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) cases a year and the last time he had a Russian client was before the fall of the Soviet Union — until now.

Since March, he’s taken on two.

“To get two cases from Russia in such a short period of time, I think it indicates just how afraid people are,” he told Postmedia News, adding Russians do need a visa to come to Canada which could be a barrier for some.

His most recent client, a 28-year-old gay man who is also deaf and therefore “doubly stigmatized,” Hughes said, arrived in Canada little more than two weeks ago from Moscow and is now preparing his claim for asylum.

Maxim Zhuralev, a 38-year-old gay man from the city of Kurgan, made his claim when he arrived in late March.

“I heard this was traditionally a country of immigrants and immigrants are treated with respect and justice,” he said of his decision to come to Canada, adding “Vancouver is a gay Mecca, of course.”

Despite living in a downtown Vancouver homeless shelter while his claim is being processed — he usurped his savings just to get to Canada — Zhuralev said life here is already “better than Russia.”

Disowned by his family and kicked out of his home after they learned he was gay, even his own brother threatened him with violence. He lost his job working for a gay rights organization when it was shut down by authorities and has faced harassment and violence both within and outside the gay community.

Caught in a love triangle with two men, for example, one became jealous and threatened him. Reporting it to authorities, he said, was out of the question. While homosexuality was decriminalized after the fall of the Iron Curtain, even in the interim before a series of anti-gay laws were passed this year, Zhuralev said homophobia has remained deeply ingrained in the population and, subsequently, among authorities who don’t take such cases seriously. Meanwhile, after confessing his love for a friend who turned out to be straight, he was beaten up by a group of eight homophobic thugs.

“It’s a danger in Russia to tell anyone you’re gay,” he said. “I can still hardly believe how openly homosexual I can be in Canada. Without any negative consequences for this . . . I can be myself.”

The federal government does not explicitly track the number of asylum claimants who seek status in Canada due to fear of persecution because of their sexual orientation. Russian claims in general, however, are relatively low. According to the Immigration and Refugee Board, since January, there were 48 claims. Between April and June, just 19. Of the claims that were completed this year, about 35 per cent were accepted. Last year, 166 Russians sought refuge in Canada. Of the claims that were completed, nearly 57 per cent were accepted.

Nicole Laviolette, a University of Ottawa law professor who specializes in refugee law and LGBT rights, said Russia was a “main producer” of refugee claims involving homosexuals in the early 1990s but that dropped off when the country appeared to soften its stance.

“Now we see there’s a complete roll back on gay and lesbian rights,” she said. “I do think we could see an increase in people having to flee . . . We could see an increase in claims again.”

Citing research by a graduate student who uncovered statistics through access to information laws, Laviolette said there were about 561 asylum claims based on sexual orientation between April 2009 and June 2011. The overall acceptance rate, she said, was about 58 per cent. Among the claims, she said, were eight Russians — two bisexuals and six gay men — though it’s not clear how many of those claims were ultimately accepted.

Sean Rehaag, an Osgoode Hall law professor at York University in Toronto, has also studied the success rate for LGBT refugee claimants. Between 2004 and 2008, about 50,000 decisions were recorded by the IRB by type of claim. Of those, he said, about 3,000 involved sexual orientation.

“These claims were slightly more successful than average at the IRB during this period — even though sexual minority claimants were more likely than average to come from countries with low overall refugee claim success rates,” he said. “In other words: countries that the IRB finds to be safe for most refugee claimants in Canada may not be safe for sexual minorities.”

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has been quite vocal in condemning Russia’s stance on homosexuality in recent weeks. Former Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has also spoken out in recent months about Canada’s efforts to protect gays and lesbians fleeing persecution, particularly gay Iraqis and Iranians who fled to Turkey.

Laviolette, however, argues the government has also been quite selective in terms of the types of refugees it brings to Canada. Little is said about lesbians from Africa and the government also heavily favours United Nations refugees awaiting resettlement oversees to those who show up at Canadian ports of entry and claim asylum.

Recent changes to the refugee system — including increased use of detention, shorter timeframes for filing claims, the lack of appeal rights for certain claimants and health care cuts for would-be refugees — also point to a “disconnect” between the government’s words and actions, added Sharalyn Jordan of Rainbow Refugee, a Vancouver group that assists gay and lesbian claimants.

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Gay Russians seeking refuge in Canada to escape homophobic new laws

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